Lake-Sumter CC to begin baseball season Friday against South Florida CC

Baseball

January 30, 2009|By Joe Williams, Sentinel Staff Writer

LEESBURG -- Lake-Sumter Community College pitcher J.M. Blake and catcher Chase Okey come at today's season-opening baseball game at 3 p.m. against South Florida Community College from two directions.

Blake is a seasoned pitcher for the Lakers, with a signed baseball grant to play at UCF for his junior and senior seasons in his back pocket. He was selected in the Major League Baseball Draft last summer but did not sign with the San Francisco Giants.

Okey, a freshman catcher, comes with the starry-eyed approach of a player about to begin a new experience.

Yet, they have the same expectations: A successful season.

"There is a different atmosphere this year," said Blake, a Leesburg graduate. "A lot of the freshmen who have come in here this year came from winning programs. That is all they know how to do. Everybody expects to win when they step on the field, but these freshmen know how to win."

Said Okey: "We had a great fall season. We played really good, and we worked really hard. We have a lot of confidence that we are going to do better than the previous teams have done here."

The Lakers went 20-25 last season, but expectations are high after a 15-5 fall season.

"We have definitely increased our expectations," second-year coach Rich Billings said. "We expect to beat the Seminoles, the St. Petes, the Daytonas. We expect to win the big games. Last year, we set a goal to win 20 games, which was an increase of nine wins from the year before. This year, we have set a goal of 30 wins, which should get us in the playoffs."

Okey, who played at Eustis, comes into the spring after leading the Lakers in hitting during the fall season with a .335 average as the team's No. 2 hitter.

Last year, Blake went 3-3 while working primarily as the Lakers' closer. This year, Blake is being moved into the rotation.

"You are still going out there to get every batter out, but you also have to try to limit your pitch count," he said.

"I feel like I made a lot of improvement since last year. I have been working on improving my changeup, because you need a third pitch in college. The biggest difference in college hitters is that they are a lot smarter. You have to be able to locate your pitches. In high school, you can get by with a good fastball and blow hitters away."

Said Billings: "Last year, we were not as prepared as we should have been. This year, I am going to make sure we are better prepared."

LSCC is moving into a different conference this year, moving from the Suncoast Conference to the Mid-Florida Conference.

Santa Fe Community College, Seminole CC and Daytona State College figure to be the top teams in the conference.

"This is an improved team," Billings said. "We have improved tremendously on the mound.

"We saw that in the fall, and we have more speed where we are going to put pressure on the bases."